The University of Santo Tomas (UST), a Catholic university with over 40,000 students in Manila founded more than 400 years ago, has joined the NetSuite SuiteAcademy program, an educational program designed to bring cloud-based business management solutions to university classrooms worldwide.
UST is among a growing number of universities and colleges to partner with NetSuite through the SuiteAcademy program, which offers no-cost NetSuite licensing, resources and training to help schools equip students with the next-generation cloud IT and business skills prized by today’s employers.
“SuiteAcademy provides us with a world-class product to reinforce the key concepts and principles we are teaching, and we no longer have to purchase, install and configure software for our business-related classes,” said Alex Santos, Department Director, UST Institute of Information and Computing Sciences. “Additionally, our students get to experience NetSuite’s leading technology and gain relevant training and skills that increase their value in the job market after graduation.”
SuiteAcademy has reached more than 25,000 students worldwide since its introduction in 2011 and has partnered with some of the world’s leading educational institutions including Purdue University, UCLA, University of Texas at Austin, Arizona State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Far Eastern University in the Philippines. For more information, please visit www.netsuite.com/suiteacademy.
The UST Institute of Information and Computing Sciences incorporated NetSuite cloud ERP into the undergraduate degree curricula in the first semester of 2014 as an elective class, with the pilot class attracting over 70 third-year students pursuing BS Information Systems degrees.
The initial offering was led by Gem Yabut, a UST faculty member and Managing Director of CloudQwest, a NetSuite Solution Provider headquartered in Quezon City.
The program gives UST students and professors new flexibility for anywhere/anytime learning over the web, liberating them from the need to access on-premise software in classrooms and labs, and broadens education beyond campus boundaries. UST’s participation in SuiteAcademy aligns with a shift towards cloud computing in the Philippines and Southeast Asia as a whole, as organizations deploy cloud solutions for greater cost-efficiencies, visibility and business performance.
To build on the success of the pilot class, the UST Institute of Information and Computing Sciences plans to deliver a NetSuite-based cloud computing curricula to approximately 200 students for the first semester of the school year 2015, to be led by faculty members trained in the use of NetSuite cloud ERP.
UST anticipates the number of participating students and faculty will increase as the new program matures, and expects expansion across the Institute of Information and Computing Sciences’ core programs of computer science, information technology, and information systems. The Institute is also collaborating with other departments, including the UST College of Commerce and Business Administration, to weave SuiteAcademy-based curricula throughout other educational offerings from UST.
“We’re delighted to collaborate with UST and help deliver hands-on use of today’s leading cloud business technology to tomorrow’s business and IT leaders,” said James Dantow, VP for Worldwide Support and General Manager for the Philippines at NetSuite. “SuiteAcademy definitely helps make UST graduates more attractive to employers in the job market, and it also makes UST more attractive to students looking for education in next-generation technology.”
